Price Tag: Boarding House
by avatarjk137
Summary: Sequel to Yellowfur's Price Tag. In a city where superpowered people are hunted, mutant supremacists like the Brotherhood are forced by their environment to become rebel heroes against overwhelming odds. High T rating for violence and profanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. This fic is a sequel to Yellowfur's fic _Price Tag_, a oneshot which came out not too long ago. This fic is a bit longer (3 chapters), and takes place in the same setting, not long after. It features cartoon characters from _Metalocalypse, Zatch Bell, X-Men Evolution, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Teen Titans, Death Note, Xiaolin Showdown, Venture Bros. _and more, plus a special appearance by a character from the video game series _Soul Calibur_. Should be quite a show. No OCs, no self-inserts, just dark action, dark humor, dark setting, and general darkness. Expect a new chapter next Monday, and the final chapter a week after.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the shows or characters used here, their respective creators and networks do. Yellowfur owns the _Price Tag _setting, although if anybody wants to use it, permission will likely be easy to obtain. I only own the contents of this story.**

**Price Tag: Boarding House**

"Ahhh!" A little girl, no older than eight, ran through a dark alley. Her pink, lacy clothing was caked in dirt and grime, as were her wide-eyed little face and long, reddish-pink hair. Tia had been on the run for a while, and until now, she had the good fortune not to run into the wrong people.

Besides being rising stars in the death metal community, the five men who formed Dethklok moonlighted as being the wrong people.

The end of the alley was suddenly blocked by a broad figure, the starlight and darkness casting him in near silhouette. "Schtop!" William Murderface ordered, hefting a large hammer-axe combo on a long, two-handed pole. He slammed the hammer to the ground. Tia screamed, turned back and ran the other way.

The other end of the alley was also blocked by a shadowy figure. "Sorry about this, little girl, but ya know, it'd be somebody else if it wasn't us." Pickles the Drummer (doodily doo) pulled two smaller axes from the collection on his belt and threw one. Tia dropped to the ground, and the axe flew over her head and embedded in a garbage can. She whimpered as she got up into a crouching position, Pickles holding his position as Murderface closed in.

"It's for your owns goods," another person called out. Toki Wartooth had gotten up onto one of the rooftops on either side of the alley, and was expertly drawing back an arrow in a spiked longbow. "Othawise, you'd just be livings on the streets for anotha two week before gettings hunted downs." He fired an arrow, but Tia screamed and a translucent green barrier formed around her, blocking the arrow and splintering it before fading away.

"That'sh pretty impressive right there," Murderface said.

"Yeah, but we can just wear her down until she runs out of shield, I guess," Pickles said. "I mean look at her. She's all little and tired. There's no way she can last for long." He pulled back an axe to throw. This time, Tia formed a circular shield between her and Pickles. Pickles threw the axe at a crooked angle (much like his crooked smile), and it glanced off a wall, bouncing around the shield. Tia shrieked as the axe sliced off some of her hair, coming dangerously close to decapitating her. While she was off-guard, Toki fired another arrow that left a slash on her shoulder. "Now, Murderface!" Pickles ordered. Tia put up her circular barrier again, but Murderface began mercilessly pounding it with the hammer, cracking it. The fat bassist turned the weapon around and drove the axe blade into the cracked part of the barrier, and it shattered under the pressure.

"Shay goodnight, little girl," Murderface said grimly. Suddenly, a scream from above caused him to look up. A huge, round, bald teenager in jeans and a leather jacket with the sleeves torn off was holding Toki in a crushing bear hug. "Hey! Chubby!" Murderface screamed. "Let go of our rhythm guitarisht! I'll fuck you up!"

"See? This is why I like rap, yo. None of this hunting-down-little-girls crap. Rappers only kill each other." The face of a small, ugly, yellow-eyed teen with greasy light brown hair leered down from the other rooftop, then suddenly lashed out with an inhumanly long, olive-colored tongue. It grabbed Murderface's axe, and in his surprise he let it be yanked away.

"I don't know, the early metal was great." Next to the second one, a third young man appeared. He was just a little on the tall and muscular side, and had a rough look with a dark brown mullet. Unlike the first, these two wore dark bodysuits with some metal plates sewn on in a ramshackle semblance of armor. "Sometime in the last ten, fifteen years, these guys fucked it up."

"Well, well, if it isn't the Brotherhood Boys," Pickles said, his voice calm and even. "Hey, fatso, how 'boat you let go of Toki, and I don't kill your two friends right off the bat?" he had drawn two more axes.

"Those are bold words," the third one replied with a sneer. "Things aren't looking so great for you. I know the rest of your band is still some ways away, one of you is in a bind," he gestured to Toki, who was yelling incoherently and flailing his bow around with a free hand (the spikes unable to scratch his captor's skin), "and one of you is unarmed."

"Hey, heh, douchebag. Murderface is never unarmed!"

"Eh?" Avalanche looked down. Murderface had drawn a flare gun from his pocket and fired it… at Toad's face. Toad screamed and dropped the axe/hammer back into Murderface's grip. Toki finally slashed the Blob's face, which was weaker than the rest of his body. Although he didn't do any real damage, Blob was surprised enough to let go, and Toki jumped down two stories into an open dumpster to escape. Pickles threw an axe at Avalanche, which he jumped back and away from before it could hit him.

"Get the kid!" Avalanche yelled. Blob obediently threw a rope ladder down with one hand. "Little girl, get on if you want to live!" Tia obediently grabbed on and started climbing up, but Blob yanked the entire ladder into the air and caught her, saving her from decapitation by Murderface's axe. "We've got what we came for, now let's get out of here!"

"Oh no you fucking don't!" Pickles threw another two axes, and Toki, who had since popped out of the garbage, fired an arrow. Blob turned and shielded Tia from the arrow with his back, causing it to bounce off harmlessly. Toad jumped over one axe and spat something viscous from his mouth, which blinded Pickles and caused him to scream and claw at his face. Avalanche took the other axe in the left arm with a yell, but raised his remaining arm and concentrated. The ground shook, knocking Dethklok off their feet.

"Let's go, let's go!" Blob took a few steps back, and leapt over the alley, leaving them all on the same rooftop. Avalanche took out a walkie-talkie. "We've retrieved Tia. Repeat, we've retrieved Tia. We're in a hot zone, I'm injured, we NEED EVAC NOW!"

"One evac, coming right up," a dark, alluring female voice replied.

Meanwhile, Toki had grabbed onto Murderface's hammer head. Murderface reared back, and swung upward as hard as he could, launching Toki up to the rooftop Blob had just been on. "Die, you bounties takers!" Toki nocked an arrow with a glowing tip, and fired.

"Damn, too late!" Toad screamed. "I don' wanna die, yo!!"

"NO!" Tia yelled, and the circular shield returned. It absorbed the arrow and reflected it back in Toki's general direction, missing him and hitting the next building over. When the arrow struck, the tip exploded like a rocket-propelled grenade, destroying most of the building's upper floor. As one, the Brotherhood breathed a collective sigh of relief, and then a black flash engulfed them. When the blackness was gone, so were they.

* * *

"Ugh, that was a total bust," Pickles mumbled as the three of them walked out of the alley. He had gotten Toad's goo out of his eyes, but it still caked his face. "They escaped, we lost the bounty, _and_ we spent some of our best ordinance."

"I don't think we can even chalk up a moral victory here," Murderface added.

"You're right. We really can't. We… we got our asses handed to us, plain and simple."

"I needs a shower," Toki complained.

"Yeah, me too." He noticed Skwisgaar Skwigelf and Nathan Explosion pull up in the Dethcycle. "How'd you guys do?"

"Well, we found both of the others," Nathan said. "Blondie got away. The fuckin' Brotherhood rescued 'im. It was that really fast guy."

"On the other hands, we dids get one," Skwisgaar proudly displayed a corpse resting in one of the sidecars. It was another small child, with reddish hair, white footy pajamas, and curiously, a duck bill. His throat was slit, and a sword was lodged in his back; blood was all over the sidecar. "Soes, you know, it isn't totallys a loss."

"He'sch bleeding all over my schidecar," Murderface observed with a growl.

Skwisgaar chuckled. "Well, that's life, right? You _works_ and you _works_, and thens some ungratesful little childrens bleed on your seat."

Nathan grunted. "How about you?"

"The rest of the Brotherhood showed up and snagged our kill," Pickles sighed. "I'm almost glad. Ya know, slaughtering children is pretty brutal, but it sucks. Even we feel bad."

"Yeah, and the one we got's only worth 120 grand," Nathan observed. "Alright, we'll slaughter some adults next time! Come on, let's go drop this body off at the Station." They hopped in, Murderface placing the dead child between his feet. "New idea for a song title," Nathan said as they drove off. "Dead Kid in a Sidecar!"

* * *

Tia opened her eyes. She, Avalanche, Blob, and Toad all stood in a dark room, away from the threat of Deth. Well, they stood, Blob had been holding her like a football since he jumped the gap between rooftops. As he gently set her down, Tia asked, "Where… where are we?"

"We're at the Boarding House," Avalanche said. He glanced out a boarded-up window, then gingerly touched the axe lodged in his left bicep and winced. "Shit!"

Smiling in spite of herself, Tia took a look around. The room featured four bunk beds, each of the eight bunks showing some degree of personalization. Two boarded up windows still let in a small amount of light from the moon, stars and streetlights (at least, the few that still worked on this street), and there was a lamp, but it was shut off. Despite the late hour, none of the beds were occupied. She was in the Boarding House. Things were going to be okay. "Am I safe here?" she asked.

"Not really," Blob said. "Nobody's truly safe anywhere in the city. But here you should be okay until we can get you out of the city. I'm Fred, by the way. This is Todd, and Lance."

"Thank you all," Tia said.

Before they could reply, three people entered. One was a teenage girl in a purple cloak. She had the hood down, revealing grayish skin, dull purple hair, and a red diamond on her forehead. "Good, you're all back, and you got her." Her voice identified her as the one on the walkie-talkie before. She frowned. "That's a nasty axe. How deep is it in?"

"Pretty deep," Lance replied, his voice strained. "Dethklok's getting good. I'm going to need stitches when we pull the axe out."

Raven nodded. "Go find Clay and Katara. Clay's good with a needle and thread, and Katara can do some healing. Wanda, help him out." The second person (a young woman with spiky black hair, an ankh necklace, and various ragged black and red clothing under a red coat) nodded, and helped Lance out of the room despite her own right arm being in a sling.

The third person, a skinny guy of Lance's age and height wearing a light blue bodysuit, walked into the room with a boy on his shoulders. The boy, blond with huge amber eyes, appeared shell-shocked and was clinging for dear life to a pair of silver tendrils of the guy's hair. He had black lines leading downward from his huge eyes to the bottom of his face, and he wore a strange blue cloak with a white ribbon on the front. "Hey, little girl, I brought a friend of yours." He lifted the kid down, whispering sharply to him, "Kid, let go of the hair or I'll take you right back."

"Zatch!" Tia hugged Zatch, who was still shaking. "What's wrong? Where's Kanchome?"

"They got him," Zatch whimpered. "I tried to hit them with my lightning, Tia, but I missed, and the knocked me down, and when I could see straight again… they killed him and I saw!" They hugged each other, crying. "They were gonna kill me…"

"But I saved you!" Quicksilver added positively. "I'm Pietro, by the way." He looked at Fred and Todd and sighed. "The other one had a sword in his back when I got there," he reported with the air of one who talked about this kind of thing as often as the weather.

"Fred, comfort them, you're better with kids," Raven sighed.

"Not really." But he tried anyway. "Aww, I'm sorry, you two," he said, crouching down. "We can't save everybody. But we save whoever we can, and that's you two tonight. Listen, you guys cry it out, and then we'll take you to see Mystique. Everybody who comes through here has to talk to Mystique."

**Did you enjoy? What could I improve on? Criticism is appreciated, so feel free to leave some in a review. Next chapter: Lance gets medical attention, and Zatch and Tia are sent to see... Mystique. Also, we meet some of the other people in the Boarding House, and learn a little more about what it does in this nasty city.**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the canons used in this crossover. Yellowfur owns the Price Tag setting. I only own the contents of this story.**

**Avatar: apologies all around for my lateness, everybody. I don't really have an excuse, and you wouldn't want to hear it anyway. Without further ado, I present:**

**Price Tag: Boarding House**

**Part 2**

"Hoo-wiieee! 21 stitches in your arm, and you didn't shed a tear! Most people are screaming and hollering with any stitches! What's your secret, Lance?" Clay asked, putting his sewing kit away.

Lance winked, and showed Clay the other side of his arm. A syringe was jammed into it. "Anesthetic. You really should try using some painkillers on your patients, Clay."

"But-" Clay began.

"But we don't have any? Well, lucky you. Earlier tonight, we stole a huge crate of medical supplies that The Monarch had bought." Lance gave him ten other needles, these all capped. "This should be plenty to start with, and there's another hundred or so in storage."

"Thanks muchly," Clay said, putting them into the top drawer of the main cabinet large closet that functioned as a sick ward. It featured the aforementioned cabinet/chest of drawers, along with a triple bunk bed with white sheets, a mirror, and a rack of questionable medical tools including a gigantic scalpel (over six feet in length), a similarly large syringe, a chainsaw, a blowtorch, a manual saw, several large acupuncture needles of the type also used by some ninja, and a melon baller. "Now, that'll take a few weeks, probably over a month to heal normally, but if you go see Katara now and then every coupla days afterward, I think I can get you back onto the field inside of ten days, although you'll probably still need a little muscle therapy. Your bicep was mostly cut in half."

"I fucking noticed," Lance said.

Wanda pulled back her arm in a threat to smack Lance, causing him to wince. "Don't disrespect your doctor!"

"He's not my doctor!" Lance shot back. "He's a kid younger than me who happens to be the only one in this circus who knows how to sew me up before I pass out from blood loss!" Still, he relented and apologized to Clay. "I'm just angry because I'll be off the field for a while. I hate coordinating things from here."

"Well, my arm comes out of the sling tomorrow night, so I'll be able to replace you," Wanda said placatingly. "Pyro's concussion is better, too."

"Unless the head injury made him sane, Pyro's never 'better'," Lance replied. "Come on, let's go make sure Mystique hasn't devoured those poor kids yet."

--

Mystique's office was just that – a room designed to be a study or home office. There was a rich mahogany desk (probably the nicest furniture in the house by a sight), equipped with state-of-the-art computer equipment that looked less so because everything seemed to come from a different brand or source. There was one of those motivational portraits on one wall, although it featured a bloodsoaked gladiator standing among the corpses of both humans and lions, and the message read '**VENGEANCE – Smite your enemies with your dedication and fervor**' (probably a custom order). There was a stainless steel ceiling fan and light combo, a flatscreen monitor on another wall (covering a boarded-up window), and the last wall (besides the one with the door, which had a bookshelf as well) was mostly covered in wanted posters – the wanted poster of every last occupant of the boarding house.

Notable along the top of the wall were the original Brotherhood – 'Mystique', shapeshifter, 12 million; 'Avalanche', earthquake powers, 8 million; 'Toad', various froglike powers, 8 million; 'Blob', super strength and super durability, 8 million; 'Quicksilver', super speed, 8 million; 'Scarlet Witch', probability altering and various strange effects, 9 million. Later additions to the primary Brotherhood, like Pyro, finished the top row. Further down the wall were a variety of names with bounties ranging from a hundred thousand to ten million, many of them recognizable faces in the mansion. Mystique herself, a woman dressed in a black suit with blue skin and red hair, was attaching two more posters along the current bottom row (two more rows would fill the wall completely). The two posters read "Zatch Bell, lightning powers, 200,000" and "Tia, barrier/shielding powers, 150,000", respectively.

Mystique straightened up, crumpling a third poster (no doubt Kanchome's) and throwing it away in a shiny stainless steel wastebasket. She then glared at the two children with her slitted yellow eyes. She hadn't said a word to them – until now. "I'm not sure what rumors you've heard about this place," Mystique began, "but let me set you straight. We have become, effectively, the Underground Railroad of superpowered individuals in this city. If you wish to keep running, you can hide with us until we can arrange for you to leave the country. _However_, until then, you're expected to do your part here, on or off the battlefield. There are no free lunches in this city." She began to pace.

"Once you've worked off your debt to us and we can arrange an evacuation, you're free to go. Or you can stay and help others like you. Many have, although some of them have died doing so. Others have set up waystations near the national border after leaving, assisting further with those who wish to run. You two are too young for me to ask for help out there, so unless you want to do that, you'll be running errands inside and helping to cook and clean. Any questions?" Tia's hand shot up, and Mystique stopped pacing. "Yes?"

"I heard there was another place like the Boarding House, called the Mansion, and it was even bigger. What happened to it?"

Mystique scowled and turned away. "The person in charge of the Mansion and I had our differences, but we both wound up doing the same thing when the government started rounding up superpowered individuals. The difference was, the Boarding House stayed hidden. You don't find us, we find you, and unless you want to stay, we get you away. The Mansion was right out there in the open, but it was a fortress defended by state-of-the-art weapons and two dozen superpowered mutants who would gladly give their lives for his dream. Anybody could come, but once they did, they stayed there. They figured the defenses would keep any bounty hunters out."

"Yeah, but what happened?"

"Well over a hundred bounty hunters teamed up for the biggest hunter raid in world history. The Mansion's amazing defenses were, after a grueling siege, entirely overwhelmed. It was a brutal massacre… immediately followed by a second bloodbath as most of the remaining bounty hunters killed each other over all the bounties. Only a handful of superpowered individuals survived, and half their number were too traumatized or wounded to ever fight again. The ones that were still willing and able joined up with us, including my own son. I'm afraid we're the only ones left. Any _other_ questions?" They shook their heads. "Good. Go find Kurt, my son. He'll get you familiar with the house, take you on a tour." As Tia led the still-sniffling Zatch out, Lance walked in, a bandage on his upper arm. He now wore his civilian clothes – blue jeans, black T-shirt, and a brown jacket with the sleeves torn off, all clearly worn from use. Wanda was only two steps behind him. "Lance," Mystique said sharply. "Two out of three isn't bad, but you can do better."

"We were four against five, and the hunters found them first." Lance had found a can of beer, and was holding it in his good arm as he took a sip. "Wanda's taking over for me until my arm gets better."

"Wrong. You're both going out there, bad arm or no bad arm. Unlike Wanda, your powers work just fine one-handed. Once we start winning this fight, we'll keep winning. The more we rescue, the less lucrative a business bounty hunting is, and the less new entries into the field. Incidentally, give me that." She grabbed the beer from Lance, gulped the remaining three-quarters down in one go, and crushed the can in her hand, sitting down and leaning way back in her reclining swivel chair. "Ugh… Lance, Wanda, how did it ever get this _complicated?_ It was so much easier back when we were the bad guys… I send you guys out to fight Xavier, his guys whoop you and send you back. Rinse and repeat three more times, then I go off for a week or a year to kill somebody or get somebody's help and leave you to fend for yourselves."

"Good times," Lance said sarcastically. "I'm fine with things this way. Clean conscience, beating people within an inch of their lives, sticking it to the man… this job has everything I could ask for. The only things I miss are Kitty and my own bedroom."

"Mystique!" A breathless young man burst in. He was tall and gangly, with blond hair kept in a buzz cut except for spiky orange bangs, and wore a blue jacket, khakis, and a white T-shirt. "Mystique…" he gasped, "we've been located."

"SHIT! Who found us?"

"The Monarch and his goons. There was a tracker on the medical supply crate."

"Damn!" Mystique glared at Lance. "How many times have I told you to always check for trackers?"

"This is the first," Lance replied calmly. "Besides, The Monarch isn't normally clever enough for something like that." He turned to Ray. "Have everybody on the first floor go to the second or third floor. Then type in the unlock password on the service elevator. The password is 'FULLSERVICE'."

**End of Chapter**

**I'll leave you a week to wonder what FULLSERVICE means.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Now, we see how the Boarding House defends itself.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters within. Yellowfur owns _Price Tag._ I own the contents of this story.**

**Price Tag: Boarding House**

**Part 3**

"We're being followed?! Damn! Those jerks will steal our bounties from us! All those sweet bounties…" the high, nasally voice in question belonged to a thin man sitting on a throne. He wore a gold-and-black spandex outfit featuring pointy gold boots and orange butterfly wings, and topped with a gold crown. Only his face was bare, with a rusty brown goatee, expressive eyes, and insanely long eyebrows that curled upward at the tips, which extended several inches past the side of his head. He was known as The Monarch, and his bounty hunting empire was surprisingly large and extravagant (over three dozen regular uniformed henchmen and a flying Cocoon fortress), considering how inept he and his followers were. "So who are they?"

"Dude, they're just a few kids who follow our Cocoon around to see if there are any bounties we miss. Four twelve-year-olds with masks, crowbars and baseball bats." This was Number 21, a fat henchman of The Monarch's. "We need all the help we can get, anyway. We've got more than sixteen separate lifesigns in there, all superpowered."

"No way I'm splitting the cash with some junior hunting club!" The Monarch snarled. "We'll be fine, we've got forty armed minions going in there! You all remember how to use your suits to fly?"

"Yeah, but that's totally a bad idea!" Number 24 was another longtime henchman who followed The Monarch, distinguishable through the uniform only by a cleft chin and a voice like Ray Romano's. Like all the henchmen in the Cocoon, he wore black tights under a gold-orange leotard, belt, gloves, boots, wings (all much more simple than those on the Monarch), and a gold upper-face mask with red goggle lenses. "It's just a three-story house, boss! Most of the rooms will have like 8, 10, maybe 12-foot high ceilings. Bad flying conditions for dozens of grown men, trust me!"

"Well, whatever! Set us down. We're all going in there at once, that's the only way to do it!" Within a couple of minutes, The Monarch had parked his Cocoon in an abandoned parking lot (a lot of this part of town was abandoned), checked the ammo on his dart gauntlets, grabbed a butterfly-themed pistol, carbine, and RPG launcher, and gotten forty henchmen to the front doors of one of the few houses still being lived in. It was a huge, old Victorian monstrosity, three stories plus an attic. Despite graffiti, missing roof tiles, and mostly boarded up windows, the place showed signs of life, with the occasional shout from inside and a few cars (and a motorcycle, and one armored Humvee) parked out front. The kids 21 had reported following the Cocoon were nowhere to be seen, probably long gone. "Are you ready, men?"

"Yeah, one question before we go in," 24 piped up.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, 24 and I were talking," 21 said. "Who would win in an unarmed cage match fight, you or Ryan Seacrest?"

"…what?!"

"Yeah, see, I said you, because you've got a size advantage and have experience actually killing people, but 24 thinks that Seacrest's Satanic pacts allow him to draw strength from his power to make or break the careers of everybody on _Idol_. What do you think?"

"Well, that depends. Is his pact really with Satan, or is it just with some minor demon? Wait, we're getting off-track. Let's go _clear_ this… this Boarding House!" They smashed into the house, revealing a dirty, unkempt large front room, featuring several doorways into other first-floor rooms, a steep stairway leading to a second floor, and what appeared to be an elevator door. This front room seemed to be used as a command center: in addition to several chairs and tables off to one side, there was a police scanner, radar equipment, and a large rack of secondhand ammunition and weaponry (including the throwing axe that had until recently been in Lance's arm). "Damn! Don't tell me they've already left!"

"Oh, no, you poor, foolish man." They looked up to the second-floor balcony. Ray was standing in front of one of the doors, his arms crossed and a disturbing grin on his face. To his left, a small, blue creature with a vaguely koala-like appearance stood on the balcony; to his right, another blue, furry creature stood, although this one was about the size and shape of a man. He had long hair that was a darker shade of blue, elflike ears, a long, spade-tipped tail, two fingers (and a thumb) on each hand and two toes on each foot. His uniform was black and red, with white gloves and boots. The large one's eyes were yellow and shined in the semidarkness, while the little creature had large eyes that were entirely black.

Although Ray was the one who had spoken, Kurt (the larger blue one) continued for him. "Ve're all right up here! Come and get us!"

"THOSE TWO ARE SURVIVORS OF THE MANSION MASSACRE!" The Monarch screamed.

"My God, you're shrill," Ray replied. "It's time you were wiped out, time _all _bounty hunters were wiped out for what you did to the mansion! You may be the hunters for now, but soon _you'll _be the ones hunted!"

"We weren't even part of that Mansion thing!" 24 replied.

"Oh, who cares?!" The Monarch snarled. "Open fire!" Several henchmen shot at the three, but Kurt grabbed Ray and teleported out. The other creature, Stitch, simply sat down on the banister, grinning as the bullets bounced off him. "Dammit! Minions, up the stairs!" The henchmen, with 21 in the lead, charged up the stairs, but Stitch pressed a button on the balcony, and the stairs became a steep ramp, causing the men to slide down in a pile with 21's bulk on top.

"Meega nala… queesta!" Stitch cried, laughing maniacally.

"Man, stairs that flatten into a ramp? That's a classic," the butterfly-themed bounty hunter sighed. "You guys have wings, use them!" However, before they could, Stitch gave them the finger, and walked through the door Ray had stood in front of. As soon as he left, iron bars slid down, obstructing all the doors except the elevator door. "Ah, another classic. But... what's the point?"

At that moment, the elevator door opened, revealing a man shackled to the elevator's back wall. He was shirtless, with long, flowing blond hair. However, as the shackles popped free, his most distinguishing feature was released – his right arm was huge and inhuman, covered in a brown carapace and ending in a huge, three-fingered claw. The carapace covered his shoulder and some of his chest and back, and dark lines stretched from it across his skin, one up to his right eye (which was yellow, not matching the other eye's blue). Even more disturbingly, several small red eyes stared out from his forearm and shoulder. The man snarled and stormed into the room. "I will show you… THE GREATEST NIGHTMARE!"

"Uh, who's that?" The Monarch asked nervously as raised his rifle at the blond man. Dark blue plate armor was materializing on the man, seemingly from nowhere. The armor featured a gold eye on the chest and pointed ear pieces on the helm, and left his monstrous arm bare. As it completed itself, the man's hair turned blood-red, and a similar red glow emanated from the helm's eye sockets.

"Dude, we're up shit creek!" 24 yelled. "That's Nightmare! 15 million bounty! He killed people all over the place; nobody's seen him in years!"

"Well… maybe he's out of practice! Go after that huge bounty!" The men began to shoot at Nightmare, but the bullets were deflected by his armor and carapace. Nightmare raised his hideous arm, and a massive sword materialized. The blade was covered in its own brownish carapace, and featured one massive, enflamed eye set in reddish skin. "Do I have to do everything around here?" The Monarch fired off his carbine, with no real results, and then resorted to his darts. Several darts stuck in Nightmare's arm, and one between plates of his armor, but with no effect. "Well, shit."

"BLOODBATH!" Nightmare reached out with his sword and impaled a minion on his blade, laughing as the costumed man screamed. "Hurry, give me the next soul!" He tore the blade out and smoothly swung it into another henchman, cleaving him in half. "This is the end!" Nightmare leapt into the air and bisected a third.

"Hold him still!" The Monarch ordered, grabbing his rocket propelled grenade. Several henchmen leapt on Nightmare. Although he quickly shook them off, he only had time to block the rocket with his arm. When the smoke cleared, Nightmare was screaming in agony as his right arm was destroyed almost to the shoulder, and his armor was soot-covered and scratched. "Got ya!" The Monarch turned to his henchmen, not noticing Nightmare picking up his sword with his human arm. "See, minions? That's how it's done. I'm sure he won't give us any more… " he was kicked in the back and pushed down onto his hands and knees. "…trouble? Oh, fuck." Nightmare slammed his blade through The Monarch's chest, killing him instantly, and energy flowed up the blade.

"You conceited, wretched HUMAN!" The energy flowed into Nightmare's shoulder, and his arm quickly regenerated. "This is it!" He quickly speared another henchmen, getting back to work as if nothing had happened.

"AHHH!" 21 was pounding on the front door, but iron bars bolted it shut. "Who made these doors? Nintendo?"

"He's coming right for you!"

"_**YEEEAAARRGGGHH!**_"

--

"Aww, he looks so sweet," Mystique said sarcastically. Nightmare's armor and sword were gone, and he slept peacefully amid the dozens of corpses strewn about the room. Not one henchman had survived.

"Should we shackle him in the basement again before he wakes up?" Pietro asked. In addition to the two, Lance, Wanda, Fred, Todd, Kurt and Raven stood on the balcony overlooking the scene of the crime.

"No," Mystique sighed. "I think it's time Nightmare went the way of Old Yeller. Lance, Wanda, you're coming with me. We'll move that Cocoon out of here at the same time. The rest of you, clean up the bodies. Hide them somewhere _discreet_ this time, we don't need people finding them right away like they did with the Storm Hawks."

--

"I must admit, this is kind of impressive." The clerk at the bounty hunting agency was a tall young Japanese woman with an impressive figure and an apathetic stare. She had light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and wore a black-on-grey uniform identifying her as a member of the Afiliated Bounty Collection Department, which dealt with taking live captured bounties into custody, dealing with dead bodies of bounties, and of course, paying the hunters. Her name tag read, 'My name is Erika. Respect me.' "It's not every day somebody walks in with a fifteen million bounty. Actually, it's not every week. Or month. This is certainly the first time I've seen a fifteen million-er captured alive."

"I aim to please," Ryuzaki responded calmly. He crouched next to Nightmare, who had been bound (with both ropes and chains) and blindfolded. However, he had worked the gag out and was snarling and champing like a captured animal. "Now, about that bounty."

"In cash, up front, just how you like it," Erika responded. "I'm having it gathered up now; it's a lot of money, you know." Next to her, another officer with a 'Dom' nametag kept an assault rifle trained steadily on Nightmare's head. He had glasses and medium-length black hair, and (judging by his expression) enough self-confidence to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

"Yes… I know," Ryuzaki nodded. A third man, identified by his nametag as 'Ed' and sporting spiky dark hair and boy-band good looks, entered the front room with a suitcase full of money. Not a briefcase… a large suitcase. "I'll take that."

"You do good work, Ryuzaki," Dom said.

"Souls… GIVE ME STRENGTH!" Nightmare leapt to his feet and bum-rushed Dom, but he deftly sidestepped and cracked his rifle against the back of the monster's skull, knocking him to the floor.

"You can go now," Erika said with an air of extreme boredom, and Ryuzaki nodded and left, easily carrying the luggage. He walked out the door and turned a corner, walking an entire two blocks before reaching a black unmarked car. The window rolled down, revealing Lance and Pietro, although both wore baseball caps, trenchcoats with flipped-up collars, and large sunglasses, which made them almost unrecognizable.

"You're a naughty girl," Lance said from behind the wheel.

"And don't you forget it," Ryuzaki responded as his form rippled and blurred before shifting into the familiar female form of Mystique.

"What'll we do for a home defense plan now?" Pietro asked grumpily. Being forced to ride in a vehicle that moved slower than he did had a negative effect on his personality.

"We'll figure something out," Mystique said with a shrug. "On the other hand, we could buy off a lot of bounty hunters with this alone." She hefted the briefcase into the backseat next to her, and checked the dashboard clock. "6:15 AM. The sun will come up soon. Stop by McMeaty's on the way home, Lance; we'll be getting breakfast for everybody before lights out."

**End of Story**

**And there you have it. The Boarding House's dirty little secret is that they turn in the rescues that are genuinely too dangerous. Also, I killed the Storm Hawks and the Monarch (along with his goons). Becuase I love them. So, any sequel can't have them. But if you want to put them in a prequel, that's fine. Also, Ray's been driven kind of crazy towards bounty hunters because of the mansion massacre. Kurt coped better. At least one more mutant from Xavier's team survived, but they aren't officially revealed yet. As for what happened to those kids... that was a weakness of my writing. I decided not to write them in (they're the kids from the graphic novel series _I Luv Halloween, _and their story belongs to another day), but I wasn't able to entirely write them out. I'll do better next time. Another story left untold is what happened to Magneto...**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Price Tag and Price Tag: Boarding House. Consider it an established setting for future cartoon crossovers fics.**


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